Directed by Joe Wright (Atonement and Pride & Prejudice) and based on a 2018 stage musical that Dinklage and Bennett also starred in, this Cyrano reimagining imbues the classic story with music, romance and drama. Set in the 17th century, the latest version finds Cyrano dazzling Roxanne with his ferocious wordplay as well as brilliant swordplay, but he is convinced that his small stature renders him unworthy of her love. He hesitates to declare his feelings for her due to his deep-seated insecurities, and also due to the fact that Roxanne is in love with another man, Christian (Kelvin Harrison, Jr.) “What’s interesting is, as an actor, obviously what you’re seeing is Roxanne wanting love. Those letters to me weren’t about love necessarily,” Bennett exclusively tells Parade about her character. “So, that rapture that she felt wasn’t about love, but it was about being able to express herself in a way that she hadn’t been able to before as a woman in a very oppressive circumstance.” Bennett says that she defines romance differently than others: Instead of looking at the sweet, swooning aspect, she says that for her, love and romance are all about freedom. “Romance is about being free to be yourself, free to express your true feelings, and to not hide,” Bennett tells Parade. “Love is not about a social contract that you’re bound to in order to guarantee security and where you’ve stripped your name and your rights and your freedom.” She added that the main message she received from her movie was an important one, especially for women. “You are worthy of love, and it doesn’t matter who you are or what you look like, you are worthy of goodness,” Bennett explains. “Don’t hide from it; don’t hide from love. It doesn’t take a pandemic to be isolated or to feel like you’re not worthy of love.” Read on to find out about Bennett’s take on love and romance, being in her first musical, and why she doesn’t watch the movies she’s movie.
Haley, this movie is romantic, sweeping, and epic. How would you describe it?
I would describe the film as a love letter to love that has a lack of cynicism. It’s transportive and you can go to the cinema and fall in love and have a jolly good cry. It’s a romantic film about love and our inability to express and accept love.
How did you approach Roxanne?
I think in terms of one of the most iconic and romantic characters ever written, Roxanne, I didn’t want her to be immediately cast into convention by singing about only frivolous things to be followed by falling in love with a handsome man at first sight. That would be a contradiction to the character that we wanted to modernize and to make more interesting, different and soulful and authentic and intelligent, and a forward thinker. I think this is an incredibly moving film about romance, but more than that it’s about the human connection.
Was the attraction to this movie and this script the fact that it was a musical for you?
I’d never done a musical before. So that was an interesting challenge. I love The National. I think their songs are perfect for Cyrano. They are filled with longing and desire. I am not typically a fan of musicals, to be completely honest with you, but this felt different. The music is the beating heart of the characters. It was very important to Joe [Wright] that we sing live in the film, as we did on stage. He wanted to hear what he heard when he came to see that production.
What was the outcome of that?
They’ve been directed and acted in a way that there’s a fluidity between the dialogue and the songs. We sang the songs live so that they would have a human quality to them, not like what you would hear on the radio or in other musicals necessarily. We wanted to bring the audience in so that they could experience the nuance of the emotions that the actor was feeling, to embrace the flaws, to embrace the ugliness, to embrace the desperation in the voice, the breaths, the cracks in the voice. We wanted to give the audience an utterly human, intimate experience.
Were you familiar with Peter Dinklage as a performer? Had you ever worked with him?
I’m one of the very few people that have not seen Game of Thrones.
How quickly did you feel chemistry with Peter?
I don’t think I’ve ever been so vulnerable as I was in certain parts of this film, except maybe in real life. It was a gift… It’s a very open-hearted film. Every character is kind of hiding who they really are and/or their true feelings. As actors, we just had to be really careful and compassionate with each other. It also helps that Kelvin and Pete have an incredible sense of humor and bring a lot of comic relief to the set.
What was it like learning the music part of the movie? Was that the most challenging part for you?
Yes. When I was given the opportunity to play Roxanne there was a voice in my head that said, “You are not capable. You’re not worthy. You don’t have what it takes to embody this woman, let alone go out on a stage every night and sing to reach those great lengths and those notes.” I felt my throat physically closing, and if your throat closes you can’t sing. There’s a woman in New York named Joan Lader and she’s apparently the go-to person when you’re doing musical theater. It sounds really harsh, but Joan said to me, and this is my first time meeting her, “No more farmer’s daughter. We’re going to work really hard and we’ve got to get rid of the farmer’s daughter sound.” I wanted to cry and I just said, “Yes. Yes, ma’am. Yes, Joan, whatever you tell me to do, I’ll do.” That was a bat to the head for a second. I worked really hard with Joan in my preparation for the stage play. There were nights that my throat closed and you just kind of tried to make that a part of the performance. Characters have terror, and that was the wonderful thing about this production. We wanted to embrace that humanness. The characters were all collectively experiencing fear. The more I worked, the easier and the more confident I felt. Then when we embarked upon this journey in making the film, I worked with an incredible vocal coach named Mary Hammond. She is the musical theater head, the head of the musical theater department at RADA in England. She was incredible in helping me learn how to dramatize and characterize the music that I’d be singing.
Do you know what’s next work-wise?
I just wrapped a film called Till, which is based on the lynching of Emmett Till and the justice that his mother sought after that happened. I play a woman called Carolyn Bryant. I did a film very different in nature called Borderlands with Eli Roth. With an incredible cast – Cate Blanchett, Jack Black, and Kevin Hart. I did a tiny improv-led film that we made in six days in Cornwall, in the UK. Now I’m developing a project based on Brood, a book that I read in lockdown and I’m developing that with my Swallow producer. I’m producing that with my Swallow producer, who also produced Nomadland last year. I’m excited about that one. I’m producing Brood and I’m producing another project, as well. Swallow was the first film that I served as producer and I had an incredible experience doing that. I don’t know if you’ve seen the film. It came out right at the precipice, right at the beginning of the pandemic. That was a really transformative experience for me. Now I’m really excited to be producing with [Swallow producer] Mollye Asher again. There’s another project, it’s based on a book that I read while I was shooting Cyrano that I’m developing at the moment that we hope to film this summer in France. Cyrano will be released at theaters nationwide on Friday, Feb. 25. Next, check out The 60 Best Romantic Movies So Far This Century, Ranked
